Audio Speaker Design Calculators

Instructions

To design the enclosure and crossover circuit for optimum
performance of a speaker system, one must know the parameters of the driver. From
those measurements, the enclosure and port dimensions can be calculatedand
system performance analyzed1.

If the Efficiency Bandwidth Product (EBP) is less than 50 and
the total Q of the driver (Qts) is between 0.3 and 0.8, the driver is best suited2 for a sealed enclosure. Sealed
enclosures make great guitar, bass, or keyboard enclosures and will produce better musical
tone quality especially when using a tube amplifier. Some guitar systems use an open
back cabinet. Open back cabinets are undesirable for good fidelity3.
Use speakers that are designed for guitar or bass amplifiers for the best sound.

Vented enclosures produce great high fidelity sound. These systems are designed4 to tune
the enclosure resonance and port resonance to a optimum frequency. When the
"tuned" port vibrates in phase with the driver, the driver becomes virtually
motionless and the sound comes mostly from the port. The vented port enclosure acts as a
high-pass crossover filter allowing the high frequencies to pass4.

2 way enclosures work
well for compact home stereo and the simplicity of the crossover handles the power for P.
A. systems, monitors, and keyboard speakers.

For the optimum high fidelity performance the 3 way enclosure has been used for
decades. This system contains a high frequency tweeter, mid-range driver, low
frequency "woofer" driver, and a 3 way crossover circuit .
Large sound systems will use an amplifier for each driver with the cross over circuit
dividing the frequency before the amplifiers. Another approach to high fidelity is
to have enclosures for the left and right side (stereo) and a sub woofer (mono) for low
frequencies.

All-pass crossovers will produce a symmetrical acoustical
radiation pattern which has a lobe of maximum sound pressure on a central axis
perpendicular to the speaker5. The symmetrical positioning of dual driver system with a tweeter
in a with the Butterworth 3rd order 2 way crossover will produce a
quasi- spherical vertical response pattern6. This reduces the
"lobbing" effect greatly.

There are several shapes of the enclosures for various reasons
such as size, portability, or propose. However, for cancellation of resonating
frequencies a rectangular enclosure a ratio of 1 : 1.618 : 0.618 provides the best
result. This ratio is used in calculating the dimensions of the enclosure.

7Dr. Joseph D'Appolito 1983, "A Geometric Approach to Eliminating
Lobbing Errors in Multiway Loudspeakers," concluded while reading Linkwitz a
symmetrical positioning of 3 drivers in a 2-way design, used with a 3rd-order crossover,
would produce the quasi-spherical vertical response pattern. The distance between
the centers of the adjacent drivers should be one wavelength of the crossover's frequency.

Disclaimer
KBápps.com takes no responsibility for any
false or misleading information. The use of these calculators are at responsibility of the
user only. The results produced by these calculators are not guaranteed to be correct or
applicable in all situations